Under Bush, JSOC was routinely smeared by the left and placed at the center of many Bush/Cheney conspiracy theories. Specifically, New Yorker reporter Seymour Hersh alleged it was Dick Cheney’s personal assassination squad:
"After 9/11, I haven't written about this yet, but the Central Intelligence Agency was very deeply involved in domestic activities against people they thought to be enemies of the state. Without any legal authority for it. They haven't been called on it yet."
Hersh then went on to describe a second area of extra-legal operations: the Joint Special Operations Command. "It is a special wing of our special operations community that is set up independently," he explained. "They do not report to anybody, except in the Bush-Cheney days, they reported directly to the Cheney office. ... Congress has no oversight of it."
"It's an executive assassination ring essentially, and it's been going on and on and on," Hersh stated. "Under President Bush's authority, they've been going into countries, not talking to the ambassador or the CIA station chief, and finding people on a list and executing them and leaving. That's been going on, in the name of all of us."
And yet today, many on the left seem to think this all just fine and dandy, now that their guy is in office.
Which is cool with me, so long as they continue to miss the bigger picture. Namely, that we notice all this.
And bin Laden’s death won’t make a speck of difference for Democrats come November of 2012. When $5 gas, $12 coffee, and $4 bread loaves, and a dying economy take center stage. The President can take credit for military operations whose methods in other contexts (and under different leadership) he’s condemned; he can play with the unemployment numbers to show a decline when we all know the numbers are actually growing; he can pretend that the economy is bouncing back — and the media will dutifully repeat this absurdity.
But what he can’t do is hide the inflation; or tell the real unemployed and underemployed that their situation is bettering.
And that means it’s too bad for those beating their chests today that the next election isn’t going to be held this afternoon. And even if it were, I suspect Obama’d lose in a landslide.
So we got that going for us.
I give Barack Obama credit for using Dick Cheney’s assassination squad. Good for him for having some common sense.
So now he just needs to get Rummy and Gonzales back!
And Glenn Greenwald and Andrew Sullivan’s heads will explode.
Well now, I hope they’re all sending thank-you notes to Cheney today! Because this means that instead of the revocation of OBL breathing permission only being possible due to the greatness that is Obama, it’s Cheney who really made this possible…
And once again I agree completely with you JeffG, and have been saying the same thing all day to those who contend that this guarantees Obama’s re-election in 2012.
Bush the elder had near stratospheric approval following Operation Desert Storm, and yet was out less than 2 years later owing to an economic condition that is far better than what we “enjoy” today.
So let ’em crow all they want; let them reel out the rope, and use stubborn facts and inconvenient truths to hang them later.
People calling in to radio shows, people tweeting stuff like “I’m glad Obama’s dead.” or “Why did they bury Obama at sea?” or “Was Obama shot twice in the head or three times?”
It’s a strange, and so far, unnamed phenomenon.
I’ll call it Freudian Manslaughter. (which happens to be my porn name)
Q: Why did they bury Bin Laden at sea?
A: The EPA objects if they toss corpses into the toilets. Plus, it tends to clog the drains.
Q: Was Bin Laden shot twice in the head, or three times?
A: Who cares?
Those weren’t the questions mojo.
I was under the impression that Dick Cheney’s Assassination Squad was made up of all hot chicks.
Although it’s possible I’m thinking of something else entirely.
Jeff — from your mouth to God’s ears.
Part of me believes the mad rush to get out and celibrate (especially at the WH(??)) was knee jerk “we must rejoice him” reaction from the left.
I was stuck with MSNBC and Brian Williams repeatedly informing me “that fence that this humoungous mob is in front of is just in front of the front lawn of teh Whitehouses!!! inorite?!?”
Jason Bourne would have wimped out and then gone after Panetta.
Q: Was Bin Laden shot twice in the head, or three times?
A: Who cares?
It is good form to make sure a job is done properly.
The Independent Payment Advisory Board cares — otherwise it’ll screw up the calculations for the deductible.
It’s only death squads when people you didn’t vote for do it.
Squad, panel. To-may-to, to-mah-to.
When will you guys stop blaming Bush and Cheney for everything that happens on Obama’s watch?
#13 Snort.
The president is planning a visit to NY’s 9/11 site on Thursday. If there is one thing you can be sure of – Axelrod’s minions will overplay any hand they are dealt. I don’t think Obama is gonna like the results of dueling soundbites with Debra Burlingame and Guiliani.
“The president is planning a visit to NY’s 9/11 site on Thursday”
oh good keep effin up nyc traffic.
Someone’s reading-comprehender is knee-walking, barking drunk.
[…] Thoughts from Jeff G: And yet today, many on the left seem to think this all just fine and dandy, now that their guy is […]